As advocacy against “conventional” GMO crops continues to grow, it comes as no surprise that the biotech industry has been doing its best to develop a new way to modify crops. One of the top concerns about current modification techniques is the transgenic component — which allows crops to be engineered to produce different proteins that would repel pests or be toxic to insects. Understandably, many people have drawn attention to concerns about the safety of consuming such proteins. Activists have long noted that these engineered proteins used to kill insects could be toxic to humans as well, or at the very least, spark allergic reactions in some people. And it seems that GMO scientists have realized that they cannot win the fight when it comes to transgenic crops: People don’t want them.

But, unfortunately, they’ve come up with a new type of GMO crop: fragmented RNA crops. As Ralph Bock, a director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Germany explains, “The objections to transgenic proteins involve concerns about their possible toxicity or allergenicity to humans, but with the RNA interference strategy there’s no protein that is made, just some extra RNA.” Bock also co-authored a study on the new GMO crop strategy.

The purpose of the fragmented RNA in these newly modified crops is to disable insects, by either inducing death or infertility. When pests consume crops engineered with RNA fragments, the RNA interference literally causes the insects’ essential genes to shut down.

Supposedly, this somehow makes them “safer” for the environment and less harmful to humans. However, the idea of “shutting down essential genes” is really quite alarming, leading many people to question if these RNA-engineered crops will cause infertility in humans.

For now, the researchers pioneering this disturbing effort claim that RNA fragmentation could “solve” concerns about the toxicity of pesticides, claiming this new strategy will help reduce pesticide use. Isn’t that what GMO scientists said when they first engineered Bt and Roundup Ready crops? Many GMO proponents claimed that the current generation of GMOs would help reduce pesticide use, yet studies have shown that the growing of GMO crops in the U.S. corresponds with an increase in pesticide use.

Why would anyone believe these so-called scientists now? It seems highly unlikely that GMOs will ever actually reduce pesticide use over the long haul. Nature continues to prove itself to be smarter and more adaptable than mankind’s best scientists; perhaps instead of fighting it, we should learn to cooperate with the world we live in.

All things considered, it is well within the scope of reason to posit that these genetically engineered crops could pose an even greater threat to human health, by way of the likelihood that whatever genetic interference they cause in insects may be replicated in humans. The only “improvement” scientists are making is by engineering their crops to be more harmful in a less obvious manner. (Related: Discover the truth about genetically modified crops at GMO.news)